Square Feat

SQUARE ROOT OF MARGARET
with Mean Red
Spiders, A Northern Chorus,
Hotel and Mind of a Squid
at the Rivoli (332 Queen West),
tonight (Thursday, February 28). $6.
416-596-1908.

Rating: NNNNN

the musical kooks in the square Root of Margaret have their fingers crossed for this year's CMW gig.They were booked to play during CMW last year, and then disaster struck.

"It's a sad and funny story," grimaces frontman Po Kadot (aka Bryan Cadotte). "Long story short, we were on our way to Toronto, the van broke down in Woodstock, we were towed back to Chatham, and everyone was waiting for us at Ted's while we were miserable in the House of Bleen."

The House of Bleen, for folks unfamiliar with the world of Margaret, is the former church rectory in Chatham that used to house Po and bandmates Dennis Reissner and Todd Clarke. Now it's just their studio and headquarters for their 331/3 label.

The boys in the band were all born and bred in Chatham -- not exactly a cultural mecca.

"There's not much to do here," Po snickers. "Everyone likes to drink a lot. We majored in LSD in high school."

He claims flashbacks fuel much of SROM's sprawling and spacey music, which he labels "genre-resistant surrealistic psychedelic rock with elements of space rock and prog rock."

If everything goes as planned, Toronto crowds can trip out with Square Root of Margaret at the Riv tonight.

"I think we should get twice as much time 'cause we missed last year's CMW. We'll have to be forcibly removed from the stage!"

For all the information about the Canadian Music Week visit www.cmw.net